SP20 fan noise.

[valkir]

Hi all

Since the SP20 is one really good miner, I decided to buy one. I got a S5 and a Avalon 4.1
I will now have a SP20 too.

I was wondering why nobody changed the SP20?
I know the connector is not a standard 3 or 4 pin but is it possible to get a fan with this kind of connector and get a better fan?

What is the cfm of the fan?

Can a push pull system could help ??

Will see! 

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[GenTarkin]

The fan is more than liveable @ 10% =)

[Xian01]

The fan is more than liveable @ 10% =)

The fan's seem decent @ 20% running it volted @ 0.65-0.67 max for @ ~1.3THs.

How do I get them running at 10% ? The WebGUI only goes as low as 20% ?

[philipma1957]

The fan is more than liveable @ 10% =)

The fan's seem decent @ 20% running it volted @ 0.65-0.67 max for @ ~1.3THs.

How do I get them running at 10% ? The WebGUI only goes as low as 20% ?

your firmware = ?

the newer firmware has auto setting my fans do 6-9% and 1100gh.

[Xian01]

your firmware = ?
the newer firmware has auto setting my fans do 6-9% and 1100gh.

Running 2.6.1 - Don't see an "auto" setting for the fans.

[philipma1957]

your firmware = ?
the newer firmware has auto setting my fans do 6-9% and 1100gh.

Running 2.6.1 - Don't see an "auto" setting for the fans.

the manual option dropdown menu has 2.6.7 (i use that one)   it has 2.6.14 I never tried it.

[Finksy]

Even worse than the level of noise they produce is how annoying the frequency or tone is.  I have 4x running at 60 in my office space, and I have to keep the music pretty loud to not lose my sanity.  That auto setting with the newer FW is interesting, thanks Phillip going to check that out.

[alh]

Even worse than the level of noise they produce is how annoying the frequency or tone is.  I have 4x running at 60 in my office space, and I have to keep the music pretty loud to not lose my sanity.  That auto setting with the newer FW is interesting, thanks Phillip going to check that out.

There are a couple of other SP20 threads with a variety of options for fan noise reduction. One that seemed pretty simple and novel is to rotate the fan 180 degrees to reverse the airflow through the SP20. The author claims that it reduced the noise and actually improved the temperatures within the box. I am pretty sure he was "downclocked" so it might not be wise if you are pushing the box to it's maximum speed. No need for wire fiddling, or anything that can't be reversed if need be. It's also worth checking the PCIe power connections to make sure they aren't getting too hot if you reverse the airflow through the box.

[visdude]

The SP20's stamped honeycomb fan grill is not the best in terms of noise and airflow.  It ranks a bit past midway in both categories and somewhere around the middle overall among the most common fan grill pattern/design in the market.  The best overall is the wire grill.  Of course, the best of the best is "no grill" at all (hence I removed the stock wire grills of the S3s).

I can attest to the "whineyness" of the honeycomb grill pattern.  I have a Mini-ITX/Haswell rig (workstation/gaming/HTPC) which I built late last year that is housed in a BitFenix Prodigy case.  The whole point of the build was to have a multi-purpose PC that is green and quiet so I could semi-retire the other ageing, watt-guzzling, bleeding edge rigs.  Unfortunately though, the BitFenix case has a stamped honeycomb grill (with a dust filter) at the bottom for the PSU air intake.  The rig is powered by one of my spare CX500M mining PSUs.  The CX500s are very quiet pulling around 410W at the wall powering an S3.  The Mini-ITX rig with a disrcrete mid-range video card idles at around 50W at the wall (stock settings) yet it produces an annoying whine coming from the PSU.  At first, I thought that it was the PSU itself (fan bearing going bad) so I tried a different CX500M to no avail.  I've been planning to Dremel out the honeycomb grill (and just leave the dust filter on) but it's gonna be a major project so I gotta find time for it.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Effects-of-Grill-Patterns-on-Fan-Performance-Noise-107/

[philipma1957]

The SP20's stamped honeycomb fan grill is not the best in terms of noise and airflow.  It ranks a bit past midway in both categories and somewhere around the middle overall among the most common fan grill pattern/design in the market.  The best overall is the wire grill.  Of course, the best of the best is "no grill" at all (hence I removed the stock wire grills of the S3s).

I can attest to the "whineyness" of the honeycomb grill pattern.  I have a Mini-ITX/Haswell rig (workstation/gaming/HTPC) which I built late last year that is housed in a BitFenix Prodigy case.  The whole point of the build was to have a multi-purpose PC that is green and quiet so I could semi-retire the other ageing, watt-guzzling, bleeding edge rigs.  Unfortunately though, the BitFenix case has a stamped honeycomb grill (with a dust filter) at the bottom for the PSU air intake.  The rig is powered by one of my spare CX500M mining PSUs.  The CX500s are very quiet pulling around 410W at the wall powering an S3.  The Mini-ITX rig with a disrcrete mid-range video card idles at around 50W at the wall (stock settings) yet it produces an annoying whine coming from the PSU.  At first, I thought that it was the PSU itself (fan bearing going bad) so I tried a different CX500M to no avail.  I've been planning to Dremel out the honeycomb grill (and just leave the dust filter on) but it's gonna be a major project so I gotta find time for it.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Effects-of-Grill-Patterns-on-Fan-Performance-Noise-107/

yeah I have considered getting a step up drill bit and making the holes bigger.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000FZ2UOY/ref=dp_olp_new?

not looking forward to doing 9 sp20's with that drill bit.

 I have done this on grills works.  I would do 4 bigger holes on the grill at   12 3 6 9 o'clock listen and measure.  if lucky  only 4 ½ inch holes could alter the sound enough.

they will certainly allow for more air flow

this is at 1115gh or so fan is at 6%

[valkir]

Cant wait to see the result! 

[Biffa]

The noise of the fan on the SP20 is 90% the fan itself, very little of the noise is caused by the grill.

Instead of drilling the case why not take the fan out and run it outside the case, listen to the noise, and then you can decide if hacking the grill to bits will actually be worthwhile.

You can replace the fan easily enough with a slower less CFM model and run it from a molex converter plugged into the PSU, you are then just limiting the speed at which you can hash at because of the cooling power of the replacement fan.

[GenTarkin]

The noise of the fan on the SP20 is 90% the fan itself, very little of the noise is caused by the grill.

Instead of drilling the case why not take the fan out and run it outside the case, listen to the noise, and then you can decide if hacking the grill to bits will actually be worthwhile.

You can replace the fan easily enough with a slower less CFM model and run it from a molex converter plugged into the PSU, you are then just limiting the speed at which you can hash at because of the cooling power of the replacement fan.

Also, its probably the acoustics of the SP20 itself that causes the fan noise to be amplified. Its pretty much like a mini echo chamber.

[bigblind]

The SP20's stamped honeycomb fan grill is not the best in terms of noise and airflow.  It ranks a bit past midway in both categories and somewhere around the middle overall among the most common fan grill pattern/design in the market.  The best overall is the wire grill.  Of course, the best of the best is "no grill" at all (hence I removed the stock wire grills of the S3s).

I can attest to the "whineyness" of the honeycomb grill pattern.  I have a Mini-ITX/Haswell rig (workstation/gaming/HTPC) which I built late last year that is housed in a BitFenix Prodigy case.  The whole point of the build was to have a multi-purpose PC that is green and quiet so I could semi-retire the other ageing, watt-guzzling, bleeding edge rigs.  Unfortunately though, the BitFenix case has a stamped honeycomb grill (with a dust filter) at the bottom for the PSU air intake.  The rig is powered by one of my spare CX500M mining PSUs.  The CX500s are very quiet pulling around 410W at the wall powering an S3.  The Mini-ITX rig with a disrcrete mid-range video card idles at around 50W at the wall (stock settings) yet it produces an annoying whine coming from the PSU.  At first, I thought that it was the PSU itself (fan bearing going bad) so I tried a different CX500M to no avail.  I've been planning to Dremel out the honeycomb grill (and just leave the dust filter on) but it's gonna be a major project so I gotta find time for it.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Effects-of-Grill-Patterns-on-Fan-Performance-Noise-107/

yeah I have considered getting a step up drill bit and making the holes bigger.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000FZ2UOY/ref=dp_olp_new?

not looking forward to doing 9 sp20's with that drill bit.

 I have done this on grills works.  I would do 4 bigger holes on the grill at   12 3 6 9 o'clock listen and measure.  if lucky  only 4 ½ inch holes could alter the sound enough.

they will certainly allow for more air flow

this is at 1115gh or so fan is at 6%

would you be so kind and tell me your config?
I'm awaiting 4 SP20s
A config at 600-620W would be perfect.

[philipma1957]

The SP20's stamped honeycomb fan grill is not the best in terms of noise and airflow.  It ranks a bit past midway in both categories and somewhere around the middle overall among the most common fan grill pattern/design in the market.  The best overall is the wire grill.  Of course, the best of the best is "no grill" at all (hence I removed the stock wire grills of the S3s).

I can attest to the "whineyness" of the honeycomb grill pattern.  I have a Mini-ITX/Haswell rig (workstation/gaming/HTPC) which I built late last year that is housed in a BitFenix Prodigy case.  The whole point of the build was to have a multi-purpose PC that is green and quiet so I could semi-retire the other ageing, watt-guzzling, bleeding edge rigs.  Unfortunately though, the BitFenix case has a stamped honeycomb grill (with a dust filter) at the bottom for the PSU air intake.  The rig is powered by one of my spare CX500M mining PSUs.  The CX500s are very quiet pulling around 410W at the wall powering an S3.  The Mini-ITX rig with a disrcrete mid-range video card idles at around 50W at the wall (stock settings) yet it produces an annoying whine coming from the PSU.  At first, I thought that it was the PSU itself (fan bearing going bad) so I tried a different CX500M to no avail.  I've been planning to Dremel out the honeycomb grill (and just leave the dust filter on) but it's gonna be a major project so I gotta find time for it.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Effects-of-Grill-Patterns-on-Fan-Performance-Noise-107/

yeah I have considered getting a step up drill bit and making the holes bigger.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000FZ2UOY/ref=dp_olp_new?

not looking forward to doing 9 sp20's with that drill bit.

 I have done this on grills works.  I would do 4 bigger holes on the grill at   12 3 6 9 o'clock listen and measure.  if lucky  only 4 ½ inch holes could alter the sound enough.

they will certainly allow for more air flow

this is at 1115gh or so fan is at 6%

would you be so kind and tell me your config?
I'm awaiting 4 SP20s
A config at 600-620W would be perfect.

it is off topic but

[Biffa]

The noise of the fan on the SP20 is 90% the fan itself, very little of the noise is caused by the grill.

Instead of drilling the case why not take the fan out and run it outside the case, listen to the noise, and then you can decide if hacking the grill to bits will actually be worthwhile.

You can replace the fan easily enough with a slower less CFM model and run it from a molex converter plugged into the PSU, you are then just limiting the speed at which you can hash at because of the cooling power of the replacement fan.

Also, its probably the acoustics of the SP20 itself that causes the fan noise to be amplified. Its pretty much like a mini echo chamber.

Some, but not much, its just a noisy fan, it has a unique mechanical noise even at low speeds.

The reason why I asked if they had bothered to take the fan out and hear it just sitting on a desk (hold on to it though!) because some of us have already done that months ago.

[visdude]

The noise of the fan on the SP20 is 90% the fan itself, very little of the noise is caused by the grill.

Instead of drilling the case why not take the fan out and run it outside the case, listen to the noise, and then you can decide if hacking the grill to bits will actually be worthwhile.

You can replace the fan easily enough with a slower less CFM model and run it from a molex converter plugged into the PSU, you are then just limiting the speed at which you can hash at because of the cooling power of the replacement fan.

Also, its probably the acoustics of the SP20 itself that causes the fan noise to be amplified. Its pretty much like a mini echo chamber.

Some, but not much, its just a noisy fan, it has a unique mechanical noise even at low speeds.

The reason why I asked if they had bothered to take the fan out and hear it just sitting on a desk (hold on to it though!) because some of us have already done that months ago.

...and adding the resonating high-pitched "whining" noise produced by this particular grill pattern on top of the fan noise would be enough to drive some people batty.  Note that in the test that I linked in my OP above, the honeycomb pattern started to give off a high-pitched whining noise at low fan speed.  According to the spec of the Antec 120mm Tri-Cool fan that was used in the test, it spins at 1200 RPM and moves 39 CFM of air at low fan setting.  The SP20's more powerful fan most likely augments this acoustical phenomenon.  I've experienced this annoying whine myself at a very low fan speed with the honeycomb grill pattern as I've stated in my OP.

I don't own an SP20 but I'm under the impression that the "whine" is what owners are annoyed about.  Does the SP20 whine?

[Finksy]

I don't own an SP20 but I'm under the impression that the "whine" is what owners are annoyed about.  Does the SP20 whine?

Like Jennifer Lawrence after the Fappening.

[Biffa]

The noise of the fan on the SP20 is 90% the fan itself, very little of the noise is caused by the grill.

Instead of drilling the case why not take the fan out and run it outside the case, listen to the noise, and then you can decide if hacking the grill to bits will actually be worthwhile.

You can replace the fan easily enough with a slower less CFM model and run it from a molex converter plugged into the PSU, you are then just limiting the speed at which you can hash at because of the cooling power of the replacement fan.

Also, its probably the acoustics of the SP20 itself that causes the fan noise to be amplified. Its pretty much like a mini echo chamber.

Some, but not much, its just a noisy fan, it has a unique mechanical noise even at low speeds.

The reason why I asked if they had bothered to take the fan out and hear it just sitting on a desk (hold on to it though!) because some of us have already done that months ago.

...and adding the resonating high-pitched "whining" noise produced by this particular grill pattern on top of the fan noise would be enough to drive some people batty.  Note that in the test that I linked in my OP above, the honeycomb pattern started to give off a high-pitched whining noise at low fan speed.  According to the spec of the Antec 120mm Tri-Cool fan that was used in the test, it spins at 1200 RPM and moves 39 CFM of air at low fan setting.  The SP20's more powerful fan most likely augments this acoustical phenomenon.  I've experienced this annoying whine myself at a very low fan speed with the honeycomb grill pattern as I've stated in my OP.

I don't own an SP20 but I'm under the impression that the "whine" is what owners are annoyed about.  Does the SP20 whine?

No the SP20 doesn't whine, the fan that comes with the SP20 whines, well its more like a whining gearbox noise. This whining noise goes away if you replace the fan with another fan that isn't engineered in the same way. The mechanics of the fan are what makes the annoying noise. Take the SP20 fan out of the case and it continues to make the same noise.

The grill design doesn't make the noise, it does add some air movement noise and some accoustic noise because of its restrictive nature, but its not the cause of the noise that grinds your brain to mush, thats caused by the fan mechanics.